A standard belt buckle is carried on one end of a belt and is constituted to grip or hold the other end of the same belt. The free end of the belt may be clamped or gripped, or it may be provided with a row of holes into which a gripper tooth or tongue on the buckle can engage. The belt end the buckle is attached to is usually provided with a throughgoing pocket through which a loop or bar on the buckle engages. When this pocket is permanently made in the belt, the buckle loop or bar must be openable; when the pocket can be opened the loop or bar can be fixed on the buckle.
The standard such system has a C-shaped loop having a central bight that engages through the belt pocket and a pair of coaxial feet that pass through eyes on the buckle and that are headed like rivets between these eyes to hold the loop in place. Such construction is fairly complex because it requires the use of machine tools to assemble the buckle, so it adds to the cost of the buckle. Furthermore, a buckle so made cannot be used with a belt having a permanent loop.